The present invention relates to a treatment accessory for an endoscope and, in particular, to a treatment accessory capable of dispensing fluids and aspirating liquids or other material.
When using an endoscope, it is usually important to ensure that the area around an affected area in a body cavity is clean and easily visible. As such, treatment accessories are provided for insertion in a channel of the endoscope which dispense liquids, such as cleaning fluid or dye, which aspirate liquids, such as the cleaning liquid, dye, blood or the like, and which collect particles such as food residue and the like.
A conventional treatment accessory for dispensing cleaning liquid is provided at a distal end thereof with a helical groove which provides a directed spray of cleaning fluid.
A conventional treatment accessory for aspiration is a flexible tube with an aspiration opening at a distal end thereof.
A conventional treatment accessory for collecting particles is provided, at a distal end thereof, with a basket-like collector which is formed from a plurality of wires. In operation, the collector is extended from a distal end of the channel and the collector expands resiliently to an open state. A particle to be collected is then positioned in the collector and the collector is drawn into the channel to capture the particle.
Generally, the dispensing treatment accessory, the aspiration treatment accessory, and the collecting treatment accessory must be used separately. That is, if the dispensing treatment accessory is used for aspiration, the helical groove may quickly become clogged with particles, such as food residue, that may be present in the liquid in the body cavity. Also, if the aspiration treatment accessory is used for dispensing, it is difficult to provide a directed spray and to provide sufficient force to adequately clean an affected area. Further, the collecting treatment accessory is generally not provided with a pathway for liquid flow.
Thus, the collecting treatment accessory must first be used to collect large particles. Then, the collecting treatment accessory is removed and the dispensing treatment accessory or the aspiration treatment accessory is inserted. Thereafter, for example, the dispensing treatment accessory is used to dispense a liquid, and the dispensing treatment accessory must be removed and replaced with the aspiration treatment accessory to aspirate the liquid.
Further, if the liquid to be aspirated still includes particles which are larger than the aspiration opening of the aspiration treatment accessory, the aspiration treatment accessory may become clogged and have to be removed and cleaned during the aspiration operation.
The conventional collecting treatment accessory has the further problem. That is, since the collector is generally made of thin wires, the resilient force generated to expand the collector after being extended from the channel of the endoscope is relatively weak and may not be sufficient to overcome the stickiness of certain kinds of mucous or the like. Also, the formation of the collector using thin wires may require specialized tools and due to the bundling of the wires to form the collector, the collector may be too large to fit into a narrow channeled endoscope.
The cleaning of an affected area is particularly important when an affected area is to be treated by cauterization or the like. Cauterization is performed to stop various kinds of internal bleeding, such as bleeding from tumorous areas of the digestive tract or bleeding caused by treatment accessories or the like. Cauterization is performed using a treatment accessory provided with a laser probe, a heat probe, a high-frequency probe, a microwave probe or the like, mounted at the end of a flexible sheath.
However, since the dispersing treatment accessory or aspiration treatment accessory must be removed before inserting the cauterization treatment accessory, additional blood may come out of the affected area such that blood adhering to the surrounding area is cauterized and coagulates rather than the affected area itself.